Noteboom The Law Firm

Disability Claims Backlog Moving In The Wrong Direction

September 15, 2010 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has spent the last couple of months spending new grants and hiring more personnel in an effort to combat the incredible backlog of disability claims that needs to be processed.

There were 1 million claims filed with the VA in 2009; a first time the VA has passed that mark. Despite the VA's efforts, the claims continue to pour in, and the backlog continues to increase both in number and processing time. The Houston, Texas VA has seen their backlog conditions worsen along with the rest of the country.

Around this time last year there were approximately 19,000 veterans waiting for their disability compensation claims to be processed by the Houston VA. Over that last year, that number has jumped 25%, and there are now almost 24,000 veterans waiting for processing. About half of those disability claims have been in process for over 4 months.

If more evidence was needed about how dire the backlog situation is, there are currently 12,060 disability claims being appealed in Houston. For the 2^nd year in a row, Houston leads the country in the number of pending appeals. This tends to show there is a problem in the Houston office accurately processing disability claims. The situation is particularly troublesome because the average timeline for a decision on an appealed disability claim is 4-5 years.

Nationwide, all the VA's have been hit with the same influx of claims from new post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rules, new Agent Orange rules, Gulf-War Illness rules, and of course returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. VA Sec. Eric Shinseki has vowed to beat the backlog, but only time will tell. Right now, it is very clear the Houston VA in particular needs some serious help.